


Invisible Mark

by cosmiceverafter



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Coming back to life, Declarations Of Love, Enemies to Lovers, Fear of Death, First Love, Kissing, Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Made For Each Other, Mentions of Blood, Mentions of Death, Minor Violence, Post-Canon, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25404727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmiceverafter/pseuds/cosmiceverafter
Summary: Even within the darkness, they always find their way back to each other.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 16
Kudos: 338





	Invisible Mark

**Author's Note:**

> I've recently watched The Old Guard and what can I say? I'm hooked and obsessed with not only the story, but with Joe and Nicky. Their love is so pure and beautiful. I'm inspired by it. I've read so many wonderful fics, so I wanted to contribute with this short ficlet. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

** Invisible Mark **

Nicky didn’t see the flash of light or the metal sword swiping at his throat. He didn’t see Death’s Door or the Pearly White Gates he’d been taught he'd see. What he saw changed the course of his being; his path forever.

He saw those familiar deep brown eyes staring deep into his soul.

No, he wasn’t dead. He was to be reborn.

*******

Joe didn’t fear many things, especially dying. He had died more times than he could even begin to count. Joe could recall a time when his focus had been to track it, now his focus was and always would be Nicky.

His main fear always came circling back to Nicky, the love of his existence. He wasn’t afraid of dying but he was afraid of death. Death claiming his love.

Every time it seemed to take a bit longer, and with each second, Joe’s heart pounded with dread and the prayer this wouldn’t be it.

It never got easy watching Nicky die; Nicky feeling pain—it made him sick with unease. He’d been so accustomed to pain but nothing quite tore at his body as when his other half was in torment. Sometimes he prayed if they were to die, that he’d go first just so he could escape the vision and reality of the horror.

These missions gave him a sense of purpose, even more now than ever before with the state of the world, but he wanted a simpler life for Nicky. The man still loved humanity. He greeted the people on the streets with a smile and a good word. He was a true humanitarian down to his roots, even around animals...to all living creatures. Joe didn’t believe in much anymore, but the unwavering good in Nicky was enough to still flicker hope inside his veins.

So if Nicky never woke again to stare at him with those bright sea-glass eyes full of love and sensitivity, then Joe truly would be dead. He might still walk this shit show of an earth, but he would be Death itself. A corpse and nothing more.

As these dark thoughts circled his brain like a tornado, his love gasped for air. Joe moved right into the center of Nicky's vision. The first thing they did when they awoke from the dead, was to find each other. He wanted to give Nicky a sight of comfort and love in those moments; be the light that Nicky was for him.

Those magnificent eyes Joe wanted to stare at for eternity, were staring up at him full of wonder. It was enough to make his heart pound in his chest.

“Took you long enough, my love.”

Nicky shuttered as he healed, and Joe couldn’t look away at the bloodstains marking his beautiful face. It made Joe sick to his stomach. The newest mission could wait; he had to check-in with his love. After mortality decided to finally visit Andy, they all took in the small moments. It was what made immortality so… _mortal_. So human.

“I’m sorry, Mio Amore.”

Joe brushed his hair out of his face and leaned down to kiss Nicky’s forehead. “I missed you. I cannot stand to be parted from you...even if it’s just minutes. Those are our minutes not to be wasted.”

His love touched his cheek gently and gave a soft smile, “Even when I’m out, I’m with you, Yusuf. You know that by now. I’ll never truly leave you.”

The words sparked joy and sadness in a way nothing else would, and tears formed in Joe’s eyes, “You are _too_ good, Nicolo.”

“I won’t let this world change me,” he replied, maneuvering his body to sit up, grunting in pain as his wounds from the gunshots slowly healed. Joe helped him grasping his thick biceps.

“See anything?”

Sometimes, often enough, they saw flashes during death; flickers of images along their way...a _story_ of sorts.

Nicky nodded, “Of _you_ actually.”

Joe smiled and winked at his love, “I can’t blame you for that. I am one _handsome_ son of a bitch.”

Shaking his head, with a smirk on that patient face, Nicky reached out to hold Joe’s hand, “I saw the vision of the last time you took my life.”

“Oh dear,” Joe replied with a regretful sigh, even though regret couldn’t possibly change a thing of the past. “So me being the first thing you saw when you woke up probably wasn’t the best sight, right?”

“You’ve got it all wrong, Yusuf,” Nicky whispered, squeezing his hand. “The last time I died I saw not only your eyes but your soul. It changed my life forever.”

Joe remembered it like it had been yesterday, not a millennium ago. In the way, he cut a line in Nicky’s throat and yet Nicky’s eyes had widened as if he were seeing him for the first time. Joe had felt everything all at once, yet it hadn’t been all at once. What they had between them was only growing and building from their first kill. He could recall praying Nicky would open his eyes and if he didn’t, he wanted to lie by his side and be washed away in the sand, too. Luckily, Nicky _had_ opened those beautiful eyes and reached to him. He had reached back. And the rest was history in the making.

It had been the moon shining light in his dark world. Nicky was and would remain his light.

“It changed mine, too.”

Their lips met in a sweet embrace that was both soothing and familiar, yet thrilling and passionate.

As they finally pulled away, feeling the pain of separation, Joe traced Nicky’s jaw with his fingers softly. “You’re the invisible mark within me, my love. The one others might not see but it is all I see. This mark is my everything and it defines who I am. When I feel it, I see only you. You are all that is good in this world. In _my_ world.” He paused to take in every detail of Nicky’s face. “You are my heart, Nicolo.”

“And you’re my soul, you sap.”

Touching their foreheads together was a vow of remembrance of everything they were and a promise of everything they would be.

They would never be without.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this fic, kudos and comments are always appreciated! Thank you. 
> 
> Come visit me on Tumblr at: stydiaeverafter


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